Graduate Housing

Case study on 29 Garden Street Harvard Graduate Housing: Cambridge, Massachusetts 
By: Jabina Shrestha

29 Garden Street was redesigned to support graduate student needs in Harvard University. The building itself was built in the 1920 and got renovated in 2003. In 2004 green roof was added to it giving a sense of communal space. This six-story complex contains 75 apartments. Harvard Graduate Student Housing at 29 Garden Street in Cambridge, MA clearly demonstrates adaptive reuse as the former police station was transformed into a new residence hall. So with the reopening, Jonathan Levi an Architect, have successfully captured this space aesthetically and has produced a place that respects its historic Cambridge context. It also includes a variety of shared spaces intended to encourage a sense of community like the open-air courtyard and spacious common areas creates a community feeling at this complex.

Jonathan Levi Architects has responded to the university's requirements with two kinds of double studios. In the smaller, students share a kitchen and bath while in the larger, each has a private bath. One can find three other residence types and they are: one-person studios and two- and three-bedroom apartments. And for each type, the architect has designed stylishly contemporary living quarters. Built-in shelves, tables, and desks ease the move in transition for new students and the birch-veneer cabinetry visually warms the rooms. Kitchens also features translucent-front cabinets and under counter refrigerators that allow for maximum counter space. Ceiling-mounted convection heating/cooling valances are sleek, quiet, unobtrusive, and energy efficient, and allow residents to control their thermal environment. It includes a ground floor convenience store with an adjacent dining/common room, and light-filled double-height lounges on alternating residential floors. Especially impressive is a new garden located on what had been the blacktop roof of the building's one-story garage.

Levi's design has also expanded the urbanistic potential of 29 Garden. The building fronts Arsenal Square, a small green space where two major streets converge, just beyond Harvard Square. In the middle of the Garden Street facade, the architect cut a three-story entryway into the volume of the building; from here, residents can access the ground-floor lobby or ascend a grand stair to the garden. The gesture is monumental but the materials are modern. The garden entry is a glass curtain wall, and the side walls are clad in metal panels offset to create a sculptural pattern. And to revitalize the pedestrian environment at street level, landscape architecture firm Richard Burck Associates has introduced shade tree plantings and new sidewalks.

Over all, the garden courtyard provides a beautiful outdoor amenity space for residents and has tried to make this housing building one of the most popular places to live on campus and in my opinion I believe it should have that sense everywhere. With this architectural move, the architect is able to transform a dead facade or a space into a graceful and livelihood .